We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Parental compliance and reasons for COVID-19 Vaccination among American children.
- Authors
Sehgal, Neil K. R.; Rader, Benjamin; Gertz, Autumn; Astley, Christina M.; Brownstein, John S.
- Abstract
COVID-19 vaccination rates among children have stalled, while new coronavirus strains continue to emerge. To improve child vaccination rates, policymakers must better understand parental preferences and reasons for COVID-19 vaccination among their children. Cross-sectional surveys were administered online to 30,174 US parents with at least one child of COVID-19 vaccine eligible age (5–17 years) between January 1 and May 9, 2022. Participants self-reported willingness to vaccinate their child and reasons for refusal, and answered additional questions about demographics, pandemic related behavior, and vaccination status. Willingness to vaccinate a child for COVID-19 was strongly associated with parental vaccination status (multivariate odds ratio 97.9, 95% confidence interval 86.9–111.0). The majority of fully vaccinated (86%) and unvaccinated (84%) parents reported concordant vaccination preferences for their eligible child. Age and education had differing relationships by vaccination status, with higher age and education positively associated with willingness among vaccinated parents. Among all parents unwilling to vaccinate their children, the two most frequently reported reasons were possible side effects (47%) and that vaccines are too new (44%). Unvaccinated parents were much more likely to list a lack of trust in government (41% to 21%, p <.001) and a lack of trust in scientists (34% to 19%, p <.001) as reasons for refusal. Cluster analysis identified three groups of unwilling parents based on their reasons for refusal to vaccinate, with distinct concerns that may be obscured when analyzed in aggregate. Factors associated with willingness to vaccinate children and reasons for refusal may inform targeted approaches to increase vaccination. Author summary: Despite wide availability of vaccines in the US, many children remain unvaccinated against COVID-19. We sought to understand why some parents in the US are unwilling to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. To do this, an online survey was conducted of 30,174 parents with children aged 5–17. We found that parents who were vaccinated themselves were more likely to vaccinate their children. Parents who were unwilling to vaccinate their children cited side effects and the newness of the vaccines as the most common reasons. However, the majority of unwilling parents did not cite side effects as a reason for their unwillingness, suggesting a wide variety of concerns across parents. Moreover, among unwilling parents, unvaccinated parents were more likely than vaccinated parents to cite a lack of trust in government or scientists. The findings suggest that targeted approaches are needed to increase vaccination, taking into account the specific concerns of different groups of parents.
- Subjects
VACCINATION; PARENT attitudes; FOCUS groups; CONFIDENCE intervals; COVID-19 vaccines; ATTITUDE (Psychology); VACCINE refusal; MULTIVARIATE analysis; CROSS-sectional method; SELF-evaluation; MANN Whitney U Test; SURVEYS; DRUGS; RESEARCH funding; QUESTIONNAIRES; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; CHI-squared test; VACCINE hesitancy; VACCINATION status; PATIENT compliance; LOGISTIC regression analysis; CLUSTER analysis (Statistics); ODDS ratio; TRUST; PSYCHOSOCIAL factors; CHILDREN
- Publication
PLoS Digital Health, 2023, Vol 1, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
2767-3170
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pdig.0000147